Today’s inane image of the day:
Introduction
Back in May 2015, I wrote a blog entry entitled, “Don’t go into medicine for the money” where I crunch some numbers to counter the claim that doctors are all part of the 1%. Sure, there are doctors that are doing really well out there. And yes, the salary of a doctor out of residency is quite nice. But these things do not take into account the current status of crippling debt that many medical students take on. Becoming a doctor is a challenging road, especially if an individual is coming from a lower socioeconomic status which requires taking on more and more debt. Furthermore, doctors just don’t get a lot of education on managing finances, even when the average medical student graduate has OVER $200,000 IN DEBT.
Anyway, I decided to revisit this question of whether becoming a doctor is worth it financially and make a YouTube video on it. This time, I made different assumptions… specifically, I decided to look at whether I’m better off financially as a physician rather than an engineer. For those of you that are just getting to know me, I graduated with my Master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering. All of my friends went off to start their engineering jobs with real salaries and the ability to start saving money for life things – a car, a house, vacations, retirement – while I went off to medical school and residency and saved barely any money while also working ridiculous hours, exposing myself to occupational hazards [let’s not forget that I was an ICU fellow at the peak of our COVID surge and continue to care for COVID patients to this day], and letting the “best years of my life” go to waste.
Here’s the spreadsheet to check out my assumptions and conclusions: http://bit.ly/doctorfinances.
The hidden costs of becoming a doctor
In all of the scenarios I presented, the doctor will eventually have a network that surpasses the engineer. It’s probably not a realistic model since most people are not as frugal as the model assumes. But since both are equally frugal, I felt that it was an appropriate comparison. This all being said, there are real hidden costs to becoming a doctor.
Let’s start with suicide.
A frequently cited poster presentation at the American Psychiatric Association (APA) in 2018 concluded that the rate was 28 to 40 suicides per 100,000 doctors, compared with a rate of 12.3 per 100,000 for the general population and thus, physicians are at an extremely high risk of suicide compared to the general population. While this statistic has not been peer reviewed for publication, it is at least one estimate. And it makes sense. Training to become a doctor is exhausting. There are significant life sacrifices made to become a doctor. Furthermore, seeking treatment for mental health is stigmatized AND may impact medical licensing.
Beyond the mental health issues surrounding becoming a doctor, there is an unquantified amount of wear and tear on the body to go through medical training. Most professional careers/jobs do not require frequent overnight stays in a hospital, shifts that last beyond 30 hours, and exposure to occupational hazards like radiation or infectious bodily fluids. These are the realities of becoming a doctor that can add to the psychologic stress of carrying crippling amounts of debt.
So, is it worth it?
I was in a comfortable financial situation. I had significant assistance from my family, worked through college/medical school and I got a ton of scholarships. So, my debt burden was not as high and thus, I didn’t feel that weight on my shoulders that many of my colleagues felt. But, I did experience profound burnout and sometimes wondered why I put myself through the grueling hours and emotional rollercoasters of patient care. Sometimes I wondered if the damage done on my own well-being and the relationships I had with others was worth it.
Although there is personal sacrifice involved with becoming a doctor, there are also some really beautiful and gratifying moments shared with patients, their caregivers, and the team of incredible healthcare workers that come together in medical settings. Right now, at this moment in time, the journey was 100% worth it. I’d just caution that individuals that may not be as passionate about medicine or find that they’re just going through the motions because of some sort of familial expectation may not feel the same way.